thegene-2 Reviews

Lost in Space (2018–2021)

Not Your Grandfathers "Lost In Space".

[7/10 · 29 April 2018]

Remakes seem to be very hard to do. Since remakes are generally done of classic movies, it adds a complexity to it all.

For sure one would need to improve on very old movies/series in almost every aspect, from characters, to special effects, from music to story line, and other qualities that are needed draw in the modern viewer.

And most remakes do a pretty good job of doing that, but the downside is that often you have to give up the basic movie and change it to a point that is often uncomfortable to those that grew up watching the original movies/series.

A prime example is The Day The Earth Stood Still. That is one of my very favorite old movies and if the remake had been called something like ALIEN VISITOR, I would have given it a 9 plus.

But because so much was not like the original, I would give it only a 6 as I expected so much more of it.

If it were not for the robot, I am not sure I would have recognized it as a remake. And they even changed the robot which could have been a significant part of the movie with today's special effects, but ended up being almost a B-grade aspect.

The remake of War of The Worlds is just about the same way. Great movie on it's one, but related to the original, it missing the mark by a lot.

With Lost In Space, they HAVE DONE A VERY GOOD job holding true to it's namesake. There are many changes of course, but most are very good. I even like the new robot and it's concept, though it is a significantly different kind of animal.

I am a person that can generally find a number of things to make, shall we say, less than flattering comments on. However with Lost In Space I really have only one that really makes me want to actually not watch the show.

It is a character that is just not right. Now they have changed a number of the characters to be different than the original, and as far as I am concerned they did an excellent job.

I would give each of the characters so far (having watched 7 episodes) sold 9 or 10 rating. But this one I give a 2.

The acting is excellent for that character, so the person that does it should be very proud of the job done, but for me, it just does not work.

And I really can not define why that is, as when I start to think about it, I just stop as I just don't want to think about it.

My example that might help others understand a bit of how I feel is if they remake any story of Jesus, and make him a clown. No matter how good the actor is, it still would not fit in my vision of entertainment.

I will say that almost from the get go, I did not like the character.

I am not going to tell you which one. You will have to watch it with an open mind and see how you feel about it.

Strange Magic (2015)

An Almost Unbelievable Movie

[10/10 · 1 August 2015]

Before I start, I would like to comment on one thing. IMDb identifies this as an ANIMATION, FANTASY, FAMILY movie. While it is that, it is by far a MUSICAL. If you watch the trailer you see no music. It seems to me like about half of all the conversation in the movie was shown in the trailer. I am not sure if they (who ever identifies for IMDb the genre's) did that on purpose but I doubt anyone watching it would disagree with me. And it could be that the studio did not want most to see the type of songs in the movie as it could turn off a lot of people. Sadly that is probably true, but they are missing so much of when songs were beautiful. In any case, I consider this movie different than just about any animation movie I can think of. And I am talking a VERY GOOD DIFFERENT. This is NOT Lion King, or Monster's Inc, or Shark Tale. Those are top end feel good, great and wonderful to watch and so on. But Strange Magic is in a class of its own. I think if people were to watch it as a group there would be a lot of conversation about it. I believe the message that was being brought across can be considered deep and far reaching for those that pay close attention. Of course what Mr. Lucas wanted to do with the music must have been just as much in the forefront of his mind. The voices of the characters are not well known (at least to me) and they all seemed a near perfect fit. When you see the credits at the end, you may think something like, why did it take so many people to make just an animated movie. The animation if first rate. Possibly even beyond first rate. Since I know a little about what it takes to make such a movie, I am surprised that the credits didn't run a lot longer. The story line is not new by any means, yet is captures you with the characters and style of the scenes that just continues to pull you in. I feel that this is one of those movies, that even if you did not care for it all that much, you would keep watching it to the end just to see what is going to happen. There is comedy. It's not "hit you in the face type", it's just enough to make you smile or even giggle a little. The movie will not make you pull at your heart strings, but it will give you somewhat of a warm feeling in parts. I believe that young kids will enjoy it a lot even though they will not understand a lot of it to any depth. They will love the scenes and animation. I think they will even love the music because I believe certain music is timeless, and the minds and hearts of children realize that. I am not going to go into detail here about all that goes on in the movie, I will say that I would be very hard pressed to say what I didn't like about it. And I will tell you honestly, there are parts that people with certain prejudices will not like. Since young children do not have these until they are taught by adults, it will not interfere with their pleasure of watching the movie. Probably the biggest question one might ask me is why do I think it is in a class by itself. Here is my answer for what it is worth as I cannot really tell you why I liked it so much. But when you watch a particular type of genre, let's say MUMMY MOVIES. Some are good and some are bad. Some are very bad, and some are very good. But a mummy movie is a mummy movie. And if you are given a bunch of mummy movies and asked to put them in the very bad and bad and good and very good categories, you could fairly easily do that. Your biggest problem might be trying to decide if you should put it up a category on down a category. With STRANGE MAGIC, I cannot put it in such category's. Is it animation? Yes. Is it a musical? Yes. Is it fantasy? Yes. Is it family? Yes. So when I classify the Lion King for example, I can group many movies into the very good to very bad category's. And I determine the level of 1 to 10 (for the IMDb) based on all aspects I look at in a movie to rate it. When I do the same for this one, there seems to be no category that other movies are in that fits. It is different. If the movie could talk for itself it might say what SONNY said – I AM UNIQUE

Survival Code (2013 TV Movie)

A different kind of movie without it being different at all.

[6/10 · 6 May 2015]

I just read all the reviews on IMDb and I have to say that from the people that gave it a 1 to the people that gave it a 10, I have to agree with most of what they say. This is a movie with good points and bad points. I gave it a 6 because of the fact that all the components were OK. That is hard to explain so let me give you a couple of examples. The acting was good - in some cases very good, but it was not great as the characters were not intended to be great. There were no real famous stars, but you felt you were watching very professional actors. The dialog was not exceptional, but it was very normal and normal is not bad. There are parts that are problems as said in the many of the reviews. My last example is that many people did not like the ending. I, on the other hand, will also say I did not like the ending, however, as ending's go these days it seems that for every good ending there are 10 that are not good. So to have one that one would not classify (at least in my mind) a bad ending, then it is again, OK. The movie was entertaining and yes at times you thought it might be an old western and at times really good science fiction. There are parts that if one would just watch that little bit, might end up thinking it was an adventure film, or a wilderness documentary, or a murder mystery, and yet, it was pretty much none of these to any real extent. I have never written a review like that as I have never seen a movie that fits into this category (which I can not think of a name for right now). Even basic terms seem not adequate to describe it. It is not a FEEL GOOD movie, but for sure not a TEAR JERKIER. It's not all that HAPPY and not all that SAD. I guess I might say that it was entertainment on a different level than most movies. I think that people that look for the big block busters and great stars and awesome special effects, have a hard time with this type of movie.I believe us older folks that have went thru silent moves up to the fantastic super movies of today, can appreciate both ends of the spectrum. So for all you older folks out there that can appreciate just a plain ordinary good movie - this one is well worth watching. Probably the most prominent thing I got from the reviews was that this would be one super pilot for a series. I believe that 100 percent. One last note: If I had read the reviews first I probably would not have watched the movie. And that would have been a loss I do feel.

Predestination (I) (2014)

Best example of how not to make a time travel movie.

[2/10 · 6 May 2015]

I believe the spoilers in this review are not so much about telling you specifics about the story but more about how really bad this film is. Being a die-hard Science Fiction fan, it was very painful to watch this movie. If you want action or thrills or special effects, then watch a Bugs Bunny cartoon, because none of that is in this movie. It is very slow. I'm talking snail slow. And it was very stupid. My wife and I actually could see a lot of what was coming next even though it made little sense. In other words, a somewhat predictable movie because it was so bad, bad, bad. I have yet to see anyone handle time travel very well. The few that do not do a real bad job of it, are ones that make the people and the story and the scenes and all else that goes into a movie, the main focus of the film and time travel is just a little thing in the background. I do not know how it got such a high ratting. That seems almost impossible to me. But then again, I do not understand how millions of humans are murdered in the this country and it is legal. They just call it abortion - and this movie was an abortion. I gave it a 2 because I don't want the person who wrote this story to give up trying. I have always believed that if someone has the ability of writing something this bad, they also have the ability to write something really good - just stay away from time travel. This story defies all logic. I would imagine that for those scientists that do believe time travel is possible in one form or another, this movie would even confuse the crap out of them. I have actually taken time to analyze this movie to see if there is any way to make any sense of it all. I have failed. Just about as bad as the movie failed. It is possible that a lot of the people that gave this movie a high rating did so not based on the movie itself, but more on who stared in it or who directed it, or maybe just liked the violin case. There were so many illogical things in this movie that it boggles the mind how anyone would expect a normal person to even remotely believe what is going on. If you really sit down and take it piece by piece, so much of it makes so little sense it simply fails on every level. I think maybe the writers of such have given up thinking and are more into how do we do something different, regardless if it makes any sense or not. Sort of like if we confuse the audience to a great extent, they will be too confused to realize how bad we did. Here is some detail to justify my feelings. SPECIAL EFFECTS - These were very minimal and on that 10 scale were a 1. Probably a few hundred dollars were spent on them. SCENERY - I am not sure but it looked like that went and looked for the least imaginative and trashy looking places. Not exciting. CHARACTERS - There was only one interesting character which started out as a 10 but by the time we get about halfway into the film, had become a 1. STORY LINE - It started out as a 10 as well, but as you got closer to the end, it dropped down to a 1 as well. TIME PERIOD - This was almost mind boggling. I half expected to see dinosaurs in superman costumes. If I evaluated their time frames, right now we should be on thousands of worlds all over the universe. DETAILS - Details are important in a story. Not so much in how accurate they are but more how well they are shown and explained. Often, watching this movie I would get the feeling that a line was unfinished. Like telling someone "Please hand me the" - there just is not enough information in those 4 words to tell you much of anything that you want to know. COMPONENTS FITTING TOGETHER - Too often, things that were going on did not seem to fit together. BOTTOM LINE - Since the show is called Predestination, it seems to indicate that the show represent 2 things. That you can not change destiny and that everything is a time loop that just goes on and on for eternity. I do not believe in predestination myself. I do not believe that from the beginning of time, I was predestined to write this review. I will say one more time - if you want to know how to not make a time travel movie, then watch this movie by all means. I can tell you one thing - if they make a number 2, I don't believe it is predestination - I just believe it is stupid.

Godzilla (2014)

Great Godzilla movie - NOT

[2/10 · 21 October 2014]

I settled in to watch what I expected to be a great movie. AT 71 and a viewer of many Godzilla movies, as I like monster movies and Godzilla is a classic one, I was expecting this one to be even better than the Matthew Broderick one which I like very very much. I have never written a review that I could only find one redeeming thing about it. Until now that is. This movies has but one and only one good thing I can say about it. And that is that it is (a little) better in special effects than the very old Godzilla movies out of Japan. MUSIC–I guess there was music though the movie was so bad that I paid little attention to it as I spent most of my time trying to figure out what was going on. SCENERY–Most of it was showing destroyed major cities. Not all that neat to look at. CONCEPT–My mind kept trying to understand all the totally impossible things that were taking place. I will not spoil the movie for those that want to see it, as there must be some redeeming qualities since it gets over a 6 rating on IMDb, but that sure makes me wonder if maybe there was some built in subliminal messages at the theater showings that told people what they were watching was not all that bad. BASIC STORY–Well, the movie did not explain much of what was going on to help me even to begin to understand the many elements of the story. Without background information and relatable context, much of what went on just seemed like random happenings. ACTING–This was for the most part like reading a line and getting out to go eat. I won't say it is as bad as watching high school kids acting (though some of them are pretty good) but for sure no one is going to win any awards – or even be nominated. To give you an idea of it all, I will just say that one of the main character's spent most of the movie making faces and not talking. He was good at that but I was watching the movie for entertainment and he was not that entertaining. SPECIAL EFFECTS– There was so much wrong here that it almost killed the movie for me. It showed lots of destruction but not the destruction taking place. Thus, the part that made sense was left out, which makes no sense. It looked like in a lot of cases they were trying to put so much into the special effect that it made my mind jumble to the point that if would eventually just shut done when it continued to happen. GODZILLA–This is the main character. Is not the movie called GODZILLA? Maybe the movie should be called MISSING GODZILLA since he was seen very little. It took forever for him to come on scene and when you saw him you almost felt like that they went to the person that designed the original one for the Japanese movies and asked him to do the design. In the rare parts that you could really see him, he looked like a man in a Godzilla suit walking – which is probably what it was. FIGHT SCENES–These were pitiful. I would like to say that they were at least doing a ROPE-A-DOPE, but they would show a few seconds and then cut away to something else and you were not sure what was going on. What they did show was almost pitiful in special effects, and often either too dark to see or too far away or too much background that they blended in and you could not focus on them. I am not against movies that use jumping forward or backward in time (like saying 13 years later or 5 years earlier), but there needs to be a solid tie between the parts. I must have blinked as that sure seemed to be missing for me. There was far too much going on most of the time to be able to understand a lot about what was going on. That destroys a movie for me. Of course I suppose it gets a high rating because there are a lot of people that just like Godzilla . I ended up watching the whole show as I knew I was going to write a review on it and I actually expected it to get better as it went along. It didn't. In all fairness I guess I could watch the movie over and over and probably get more of a sense of what was going on, but that has one glaring problem. And that is that I would have to watch the movie. I gave the movie a 2. One point for being a Godzilla and one point for special effects being better than the original Godzilla. I suppose if this would have been just a monster movie and I had never seen a Godzilla move I would have given it a higher rating, but I don't believe it would be all that much higher. I guess I could compare it to a bunch of the older Godzilla movies and it would get a higher rating as well, but again, I can't see how that be much higher. Maybe that is what they were trying to do. Film one just like in the olden days with the technology available today. Now if that was their goal I would probably give it a lot higher rating, like a 4 maybe. BOTTOM LINE – If you expect to see a modern day Godzilla movie with good modern special effects and a story line that is good, acting that is good, and all the other components that make a movie good, do not waste your time. If you are interested in how not to make a Godzilla move, then your time will not be wasted if you watch it.

High Moon (2014 TV Movie)

Where's the rest of the movie?

[5/10 · 16 September 2014]

I generally do not write a spoiler but I think people really need to be warned in advance about this one. I will tell you up front that the movie may well be worth watching as the prime example of how to make a move and how not to make a movie. This is a great movie and a terrible movie at the same time.That is why it is a 5 and not a 1 or a 9. The actors were very good half the time and very bad half the time. The script was very good half the time and very bad half the time. The special effects were very good half the time and very bad half the time. It seemed like every type of element you could think about that you would rate a movie on was good half the time and bad half the time. I wonder if in reality, part was made in Canada and part in Japan. And if they had a very experienced director half the time and a new to the business one the other half of the time. There were parts that I couldn't wait to see what would happen next and parts where I would actually shake my head as to how silly or strange or stupid it was about what was going on. It often felt like they were inserting things that were very advanced and yet other things that were back in the Jurassic period. And yes, there is a mechanical T-Rex in the movie. Probably what made it so noticeable was that it often seemed like it was on some sort of schedule where you run 10 minutes of good and then 10 minutest of bad and go back and forth. I could spend 10,000 words on why this movie is not the great sci-fi movie that it could have been, but I think I have beat up on it enough. I should mention though that unless you are a speed reader, the Russian translation to English of the words on the screen are far far to fast for the average person. And there is so much of it that I got tired of pushing the pause button so I could read it and just read the first few words that I could catch. But the end destroyed it for me. You know how they end movies sometime with the strongest of indication that a sequel is almost for sure in production. Well, they never got to that. Basically the movie ended before the end. I am not sure what happened. I checked my clocks (more than one). I checked the run time of the movie. I even thought it was chapter one or a TV series. So exactly how bad was the ending. It was so bad that this comment is most IMPORTANT that it . . . . . . . . . . . (thus my review is complete just like the movie was)

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

It's an OK movie but many may not like it all that much.

[6/10 · 3 September 2014]

After watching number one I could not wait to watch number 2. I was very disappointed. I gave it a 6 because I think their hearts were in the right place, but their minds were most of the time somewhere else. The movie was so slow in so many spots. Another problem is that things would happen and you would either scratch your head trying to understand more or have a real desire to know a lot more - but you never do. There were some inconsistencies or inadequacies. One of the things movies seem to do these days is have a scene that required the characters to do something quickly and they stand around and talk. You won't be disappointed if you are looking for that. The action sequences were far too fast and at times incoherent. It's like they were trying to see how much animation and special effects they could put in a few seconds. I could live with most of that as I do not expect Spider-Man to be the Great American Epic, but I want to be entertained without having to constantly think about things like "why did they do that" or "that really does not make any sense". And there are movies that can combine humor with very serious stuff very well. This is for sure not one of them. It was an 8.5 for me until the end. While the ending may have pleased a lot of people or not been much of a problem, for me it sucked the big one in 3 different ways. I won't tell you what they are but let you find out for yourself. While the rating on IMDb at present is a 7.1 for both movies, you will note that the second movie has only about half the votes as the first one. My guess is that word of mouth slowed ticket sales significantly, which reflected in a lot less reviews. At present box office for the 2 movies shows almost twice as much for the original. In fact, add both 1 and 2 box offices together and they are not much more than the total for the original Spider-Man 3. Numbers are adjusted for inflation. If you love Spider-Man because you like the character, this movie will satisfy you. However, if you expect more out of the movie, don't buy it - rent it. It is hard to make a number 2 as good as the number 1. But with just some minor adjustments, this could have been even better. Number one is a 10 in my book. If you do like I did and watch the movies back to back you will be even more disappointed I believe.

Odd Thomas (2013)

Having a hard time getting this movie out of my head.

[7/10 · 26 March 2014]

Yes, I am having a hard time getting this movie out of my head. Odd Thomas is not all that odd of a movie. What I mean is that some people make a prejudgment on a movie by its title. I am actually not sure I could come up with a better title right offhand. Probably as titles go, this is as good as any for this movie.

IMDb shows the genres as COMEDY - HORROR - MYSTERY. I personally would have chosen SUPERNATURAL - MYSTERY. While there is some comedy, the few places that it was in could have been modified to the point that the comedy was either so minor that it would not distract from a serious movie or just be taken out completely. This is a somewhat serious movie for sure. This is an excellent movie in fact. I like the characters. The special effects and music are first rate, the acting is great, the scenes are set up very well and overall just a down right great movie.

And as for the HORROR part of it, that just does not seem to be a word I would use to describe it. If you could call WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S a HORROR movie, then I guess any movie with a dead person in it would be called that. Of course that movie is just classified as a COMEDY.

Pretty much the goal of any movie is to entertain. And the single best way to do that is have actors that can make you forget they are actors and you become a part of the movie story line. They did an excellent job. Of course when you identify with the characters strongly, it will affect you for a while about what happens to them in a movie.

When I saw the Star Trek move where Spock dies, there were people leaving the theater crying. I would be there were some people in Hollywood that had a bit of a rough time until they brought his character back.

I would say that Odd Thomas is one of the best movies I have seen this year. So if that be the case then why did I give it a 7.

Well, there were a number of minor problems in my mind, but since that is more of a personal thing, I never count that against a movie. There were also a couple of bigger problems that I believe many will pick up on, but yet, the movie is so good, that you almost gloss over them as well.

However, there was one significant problem that I believe the director/writer/whoever, tried to resolve in their own way, and it was actually done in a fairly good way, but sometimes I just don't like something and that is that.

And I did not like this particular thing a lot. It is the kind of thing that almost makes me (and probably others) want to stop watching a movie. I didn't and I am sure most of those that watch the movie will understand what it is with no problem.

I highly recommend this movie as it is so good that it could well appeal to various types of people that often watch only certain specific genres that they like.

Ender's Game (2013)

99 Percent Great - 1% Very Bad

[8/10 · 18 February 2014]

First off, there is not a spoiler alert that will say any details about the movie that gives away much of anything. At 71 years old, and having watched SCI-FY movies starting at age 8 and am not only a huge fan, but though I have watched tons and tons of other types of movies, all of them added together would not equal the number of SCI-FY ones I have watched. I love, love, love SCI-FY.

When I discuss a movie with someone, I like to talk about the different elements such as special effects, story line, dialog, cinematic photography and so on. But I also like to talk about how I feel things should have been done different, and possible better choice of certain actors, and other details and normally the reviews do not cover.

As with many good movies there is so much to talk about that to even begin to cover things would require more time than the movie. This is for sure one of those cases so I won't even start.

The movie is a superb SCI-FY movie. I have no problems with the characters, or the special effects, or the acting, or dialog or almost all other components/elements of the film.

Thus for one very small part of about 4 minutes of film to drop my ratting to an 8 is very unique and very rare. In fact, very, very rare.

When one watches SCI-FY they have to open their mind to the point of believing that almost anything in the future is possible. Granted there are some things that seem almost impossible. That sometimes becomes a real problem for many for us that love SCI-FY, even super love the genre.

A problem in this for sure is how the aliens could do what they did - but I won't get into that as that little problem is nothing compared to the much bigger problem.

I know you are expecting to see what that problem is here, but that would be too much of a spoiler. I will say that for those that read this, they may well figure out how to identify the problem before they see the movie, but I would advise them to see the movie anyway.

One hundred and ten minutes of the movie is excellent. So 4 minutes is not all that much for bad, but was enough to drop my rating down to an 8 (probably would have given it a 10 otherwise). I see that almost 75,000 have already voted on IMDb and it has a rating of 6.9. I can't help wonder if the 4 minutes were not there or were changed significantly, the ratting might not be an 8 or higher.

The Quiet Earth (1985)

To watch or not to watch. You decide.

[14 November 2011]

I believe that what most people postulate as to the meaning (what really happened at the end) is, for the most part, wrong. Since the movie is not only not based on much science to begin with, and since what took place during the movie is not well explained at all, it leaves every possibility possible. My take on the movie is probably different than most people - and that is that they could not come up with a good ending so they left it hanging big time. Sort of what they do with special effects when the monster is not very good, they shoot it dark and or with strobe lights, and or fast, and or at angles that leave a lot to be desired. That is not to say that any of these methods cover up a good special effect as certain methods actually enhance the effect such as in Alien. I was giving the movie an 8 plus until the ending. It is now a 6. It's a shame they did not do a good ending as literally all aspects of the movie were great including music scores, special effects, acting, basic story line and so on. I will say this though - the movie is interesting. It was probably shot on a small budget with unknown actors (and very few of those)and in a limited time frame. So for that, the movie is actually a 9 under those conditions if I take the ending out. Since it is not trying to be the great SCI-FI movie of the year I would recommend it to SCI-FI fans that may want something different and are not concerned with any real logic of science or even speculation. If endings that leave one with the basic thought of "what the hey", bother you, then this movie is not for you. However, if you like movies that move slow yet hold your interest like "I had to keep watching to see what was going to happen next", then this one will do that.

Monsterwolf (2010 TV Movie)

One Of The Top 10 Made For TV SCI-FI Movies Of The year

[9/10 · 9 October 2010]

This film gets a solid 9 for a MADE FOR TV movie. A quick rundown. The actors are very good. The movie theme is very good. The scenery and locations are very good. The filming is very good. The characters are very good. I probably should put an extra "very" in front of everyone of the previous descriptions as it is all that good.

The movie keeps you interested from start to finish. There were only two minor problems that I found. For those that expect top level graphics, they will not be found here as it often is with many lower budget movies. However, it distracts very little from the movie as it is the characters and story that are the main focus. Though the special effects are far from great they are masterly handled to the point that it is a very minor thing. Don't get me wrong. The quality is not all that bad, but it is not Blockbuster movie level which it does not need to be. A more significant minor problem is that whoever wrote the story seems to have the belief that the even an average mind will not pick up on the fact that all these out of the ordinary things are happening but no one in the film seems to pick up on that fact that they are out of the ordinary.

Of course I must say that I am very oriented to logic. While I can accept wild non fact based theories as being possible, once one steps into the realm of fairly unbelievable, my mind reacts negatively. In other words I can believe that intelligent life can exist elsewhere in the universe. However, I cannot believe any statement that says 90 percent of the people in the United States do not believe that Coke and Pepsi are soft drinks. The first statement about alien life seems very possible to me, the second does not. Of course this is just one man's opinion, so do watch this movie as it is very entertaining for SCI-FI fans.

Lake Placid 3 (2010 TV Movie)

Not the original Lake Placid but watchable.

[5/10 · 21 August 2010]

First let me say that I would give the first Lake Placid move a 9 for what it is. I give ratings based on what I believe the intent of the movie is and thus it is easier for me to give a 9 on a movie that is fairly good but not intended to be a block buster, and a lot harder to give a 9 on one that is intended to be a block buster but falls short. I also take into consideration if it is made for TV, and a number of other factors. And as we all know, many movies in the past that are made for the original SCI-FI Channel were very low grade. Of late, I feel that many of the ones being made are a lot better. I was really hoping that this one would be one of them and I will say that a lot of the move was – yet too many parts of the movie were not. And it seems to be carried through in all aspects of the movie. It is almost like there were two different groups working on the movie. The first group, a fairly knowledgeable group, and the second group, not so knowledgably.

The acting had parts that were very reminiscent of the first Lake Placid. And yet other parts were at times, a little out of place, a little too much, and little over the top, a little like beginners practicing for a part and so on.

The special effects. I would give some of them a grade of B plus to A minus. Others would get a C minus to a D.

The script was very good in certain parts, and to be kind, I will say not so good in other parts.

The characters were a mix that seemed to be one way one minute and another way the next. It is hard to describe but it seemed like for many of the main characters, they were in one move acting one way and then in a different movie acting another way. Though not as bad as this, I would compare it to a person being a though guy one minute and a meek guy the next.

This could have been one of SCI-FI Channels top of the list movies but it's not. I did watch it all, but often felt I was on a race car moving fast one minute and slow the next. The scenes jumped around to where you did not get a good feeling of flow or natural movement.

The movie had a great start. Some would not like it but it does grab your attention, and what you first think might be going to happen, doesn't and you get a whole new perspective to things.

I feel the biggest problem the movie had was that many of the characters for the most part seem to develop in the story fairly well, but then are jerked out of the story. I am not sure why the director/writer did this as it distracted me a lot.

There are parts that will seem to not make sense and at the end, you start to have a number of questions come up in your mind that will not be answered. You also feel during the film that you do not know why a character did this or that.

I will say that the scenery was excellent. Not sure where the movie was made but I have no complaints about that.

If I gave details around a lot of items noted above, it would take away too much from one watching the film and it is worth watching once. I have watched the original Lake Placid a number of times and will most likely watch it a number more as it is just that kind of movie. However, this one, I will most likely not watch again.

And I don't want to give away the ending but I will say that most will not like the ending as it is somewhat of a jumble and seems to not fit will with any of the good parts of the movie and even less with the not so good parts.

I give the move a 5 because there are a number of good parts, but it could have been so much more.

The Book of Eli (2010)

WOW - What a movie!!!

[10/10 · 14 August 2010]

This is a very special film. I do not give out 10 ratings unless a film has a great impact on me. Yes, it's nothing new under the sun as the old saying goes, but humans have the capacity to see wonderful things in what is never new, just different, or special, or wonderful. Was this a wild action movie? No – but the action was there and it was very good and just the right amount. Were the special effects fantastic and wowing? No – but they were great. It was that they fit so perfectly into the film that they did not overtake all the other components of the film, and thus, were just what was needed. Was the plot super sensational? Many might say "not really". But was it great? For an answer to that I believe most would say yes. Was the acting worthy of outstanding life time achievement awards? Probably not in most people's minds. But if the characters are believable and you do not see them as actors, then the job was done right. For example, you do not see the main star as an actor though that is what he is, but rather as a real person. And that is exactly what we are supposed to see when the job is done right. I did not see one bad acting job in the entire film though I did not know any of the other actors off hand.

So it sounds like you might want to know why I gave it a 10. Since I am only an emotional person under the most extreme conditions, most films that I like do little for me in the emotion department at the end other than raise a comment of "good movie". And I have been watching movies for over 60 years. A lot of movies. This one brought liquid to my eyes at the end. Now, that's emotion. The components of this film all fit together so that you watched a story rather than a movie.

Here is one way I can tell how good a film is for me. If it moves somewhat slow and yet you just have to keep watching to see what is going to happen next. And I will say that I felt that through from the first few seconds of the movie to the very last second before the credits rolled. Now that's how you make a movie.

Another is how one feels about the movie long after it is over. I was still and am still thinking about it even after days from when I watched it.

Will it affect most people like that? Probably not. But it will affect most people in a positive way. And I believe this movie is somewhat like radio is when it is called "theater of the mind". There is more to this film than meets the eye. Probably because there is always that problem with significant films where you have what could be 4 hours of move and you have to do it in less than 2. Thus every little detail is not fully explained and there is a lot of interesting details here. You do actually think about the why and where and what and when and so on, and you must then add to the movie mentally in order to feel you are closer to what the story is.

Anyway, that is getting into deep psychology and we don't need to do that. So get this movie and watch it. You will enjoy it and it will make an impression that for most will be very positive. It is entertainment time well spent.

Eyeborgs (2009)

Robot Watchers Are Watching Now

[7/10 · 7 July 2010]

This movie has it's good points and it's bad points Yet there is just something about this movie that holds your attention all the way through. The special effects are not fantastic but they are very good. The acting in general is not great, but it is for the most part, fairly good. The story line is not new yet, it seems to work within the context of the movie. I gave it a seven because it was overall entertaining to watch. Don't expect Star Wars or Star Trek but there is mystery and action and a little bit of thrills, and plenty of robots. Very importantly, I did not feel the movie was slow in parts as it kept my mind engaged and I also found myself thinking more about what was going on in the movie rather than what I thought could have been done better. It does borrow concepts from other great movies to an extent, but given that there are so many science fiction movies out there now, it is hard to come up with any real new and "never been done" ideas. For those that like to get an idea of the basic concept of the move and it's components like acting and plot, I think of this movie as an updated version and cross between 1984, and Colossus: The Forbin Project. So grab yourself a can of pop, pop yourself some popcorn and plop down on comfortable couch and enjoy some good entertainment experience that is good and does not try to be one of the main stream super blockbuster Hollywood Extravaganzas.